charge of an Assistant Resettlement Officer. The manning scale for Resettlement Assistants is one to 540 tenancies, but one experienced Resettlement Assistant acts as second in command in charge of general administration; and others are responsible for sanitation, administration and rent collection.
47. This means that the block officers, who are Resettlement Assistants or Student Resettlement Assistants, are each responsible for 800 - 1,000 tenancies and a population of about 4,000, made up from two Mark I or II blocks or three Mark III blocks, or one Mark IV or V block. These officers are required to patrol their blocks for four hours every day, and to inspect each room once a month. Their basic function is to ensure that the building and its fittings are kept in good repair. However, their more difficult tasks relate to the control of tenancies, chasing of rent, addition to households of new family mem- bers and deletion of those who move away, relief of overcrowding, and other duties. There is no doubt that block officers cannot cope effec- tively with all these duties and during the year it was agreed that a new grade of Estate Caretakers should be recruited to take over the inspections and more routine duties. This scheme, which was introduced for new blocks taken over during the year, has resulted in a consider- able improvement in basic management.
48. In contrast with normal commercial practice, there is no formal lease between landlord and tenant; letting of tenancies is governed by Section 28 of the Resettlement Ordinance. Tenants are issued with a tenancy card listing a number of basic conditions which they are ex- pected to observe under pain of eviction. However, as most resettled squatters regard their accommodation as some form of compensation for their demolished structure, it is difficult to build up a satisfactory landlord/tenant relationship and the enforcement of tenancy conditions requires tact and patience. Warning letters, final warnings and finally termination of tenancy and eviction notices are issued (see Appendix 6). Difficult cases are referred to the Assistant Resettlement Officer-in- Charge, and sometimes to the Group Resettlement Officer, Resettle- ment Department Headquarters, and, ultimately, to the Resettlement Management Select Committee. During the year, block officers con- tinued to be under considerable pressure dealing with intake of tenants and decoration of rooms, recovery of rent, relief of overcrowding, en- forcement of tenancy conditions, cleansing operations, and operations against hawkers.
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